1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to connectors useful for transferring signals from traces adjacent an edge of a first panel to traces adjacent an edge of a second panel.
2. Description of Related Art
A panel, such as printed circuit board (PCB), is commonly used to support components and facilitate transfer of signals between the components installed on the panel. For example, a processing unit, such as a central processing unit (CPU) can be installed on a motherboard (an example of a PCB) and the CPU may be used as the processing brains of a computer, such as a server, and may be coupled to memory modules, communication modules and the like. Thus, while a CPU tends to be a common processing component, it is also relatively common to combine multiple components, including multiple processors, on a single panel and have the components communication with each other. Other types of component modules, such as memory modules, communication modules and the like may also be placed on the panel and brought into communication with each other. Depending on the application, the component modules on the panel can be designed to address a wide range of needs by combining different types of components together in an appropriate architectural configuration.
Because of the relatively rapid rate of technology improvements, however, it is often beneficial to include a design that is capable of being upgraded. In addition, it is often beneficial to provide a customer the ability to customize the components in communication with each other. Therefore, connectors (sometimes referred to as adaptors) are sometimes included on the panel so that additional components can be coupled to the panel based on customer requirements. Often the connector will connect signal traces on one panel with signal traces on another panel so that components coupled to the signal traces on the two panels can communicate together. The use of connectors allow for a base panel design that can be modified based on customer requirements. In practice, a connector can allow a first panel with a first set of components to be mated to a second panel with a second set of components. In the computer world, for example, a personal computer (PC) might include one or more processors on a first panel (e.g., a motherboard). The first panel could support a number of connectors, some designed to accept panels with memory modules and other connectors designed to accept panels that supported additional processors. Therefore, a customer could decide how much performance was desired and select and install the appropriate panel(s) (with the desired components) in the connector(s). This methodology can be used with a large variety of components, basically for any type of component that would provide a benefit if brought into communication with the existing components.
One solution for providing the desired flexibility is to mount a connector on the panel and ship it to all the customers. While this works from a standpoint of providing a flexible configuration, including the connector on the base panel increases the cost for the consumer that does not desire to add additional components. This added expense becomes more problematic as the performance and cost of the connector increases. Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a connector that can be added when the additional panel (and associated components) is added. Existing designs that can provide certain such benefits include what is known as a co-edge connector. However, existing co-edge connector designs are not well suited to coupling different sized panels together in a convenient manner. Therefore, further improvements in the design of such co-edge connectors would be appreciated.
Co-edge connectors are used to provide signal paths between signal traces on two different panels. One further issue is that as the performance of the components mounted on the panels that are coupled with the co-edge connector increases, the rate of communication between the components on the two panels also needs to increase. Thus, for example, adding a second panel with high performance modules to the system of high performance modules on a first panel is not as beneficial if the components on the two panels cannot communicate in an effective manner. One way to address this is to increase the number of signal paths (which are typically differential signal pairs as the data rate increases) between the first and second panel. The problem with such an approach is that each additional signal path takes up more space on the panel. Therefore, for certain applications it would be beneficial to have a co-edge connector that could provide faster communication performance over each signal path.